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November 20, 2012 AsktheBuilder Newsletter & Tips

Happy Thanksgiving to you! It's really odd to write that because quite a few of the subscribers to this newsletter don't live here in the USA. I regularly get very nice emails from subscribers in Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the UK to name just a *few* countries! To them, this coming Thursday is just a regular day. No big deal.

I feel that Thanksgiving should be a holiday celebrated by many across the world not unlike Christmas. There are many things to be thankful for.

It's really important to start each day thinking what you should be grateful and thankful for. I started doing that a few months ago, and it's really improved my outlook each day.

Here's my very short list as I compose this newsletter. Believe me, I could fill this entire newsletter with things I'm thankful for:

I'm thankful to have you as a subscriber.

I'm thankful for Kathy's health, that of my kids and sister, and all my relatives.

I'm thankful for the support and understanding I get from Kathy and my kids.

I'm thankful for the support network of dear friends that help me constantly.

I'm thankful I live in a land where I can write and talk without fear of what I say.

I'm thankful I got to see my dear friend Mike before we had to send him back to Heaven.

What can you be thankful for? You may be having a tough time right now, but surely there's a small list of things you can be thankful for. Please take a deep breath and reflect on that. You'd be shocked at how calming it is to do just that.

TIP OF THE WEEK - USING A BELT SANDER

I could write about some of the tips about how to use a belt sander, but how about I just show you?

TRAVEL TIP

Are you traveling over Thanksgiving? Do you need to stay at a hotel or motel?

Use Tripadvisor.

Kathy and I used it about a month ago before we drove back to Cincinnati to see her dad. I found an amazing motel, the Glass House Inn, on that website and the reviews convinced me it was the perfect place to stay.

Read my TripAdvisor review and tell me if you wouldn't want to stay here. On my monitor it's the one titled: Go Back in Time to a Fantastic Place

I also ask that if you do find a great place to stay, by all means tell the world about it on TripAdvisor! Post a review!

MOTH BALLS - WATCH HOW YOU USE THEM

Diane Ellis is a subscriber to this newsletter. Unfortunately she made a mistake. She used a product without reading the label. She wanted to share her story to drive home a point:

Read LABEL Instructions - ALWAYS

"We were having a problem with animals (probably mice) in our attic. A friend suggested getting some mothballs and scattering them in the eaves. We thought that sounded like a great idea. WRONG!!! Never, EVER, use mothballs anywhere inside your home, even the attic.

Within hours, the mothballs were converting to gases, making our entire second floor -- where the bedrooms are -- unlivable. The gases were so strong we were nearly choking. The fumes were coming through the bedroom ceilings from the attic. We knew we had to remove the mothballs, but how do you do this when there is no flooring in the attic??!!

OMG it was awful. We spent hours moving plywood around the attic, on our stomaches using a vacuum cleaner to suck them out of the crevices. It took two weeks for the smell to dissipate.

After reading the instructions on the mothball box more carefully, it says never to use them inside your home or attic.

I'm 53 years old. When I was a child, my grandmother used them in her wool clothing in the summer. We thought moth balls were pretty innocuous. We were wrong. They are highly toxic, and SHOULD NOT be sold in the housewares department, near the ironing boards (that's where I found them at Walmart)."

DESIGN SOFTWARE AND KEITH CARNEY

Are you thinking of building a home or doing a large room addition? You may want to try to do the plans yourself using software from Chief Architect. They've been in the design software business for years and years. I would always see their fancy booth and hands-on demonstrations at the trade shows I would attend.

Home Designer Software by Chief Architect announced its new version 2014 a few days ago. The new 2014 version offers enhanced tools and advances to existing features that allow you to do much of what an architect can do. Well, maybe that's a stretch.

Home Designer 2014 can be purchased at HomeDesigner.com. A free trial version is also available for Home Designer Pro.

Now, let's say you have no interest in drawing your own plans or clawing your way up the learning curve of a complicated piece of software. I absolutely get that. You want a pro to do your plans and be assured the space is going to work.

Well, just look to the right and click that handsome black and red ad for Keith Carney! He'll draw your plans. He drew the plans for my DIY Shed. Guess what? He lives over 150 miles away from me and NEVER had to come to my house for a site visit. We did everything via email or on the phone. Need I say more?

HEART ATTACK

Tonight is graduation night for me! I graduate from my CERT training. Part of that training was CPR.

Tell me, if you were in a public place, say a shopping mall, and someone collapsed, would you know what to do? My good friend Loren sent me a link that teaches you, in just minutes, how to properly react if you see someone collapse from a heart attack.

Would you like to see how EASY it is to save someone's life? It could be that of your husband, wife, son, daughter or a friend. Go right now and watch this unbelievably cool interactive video. You'll be asked during the video to make a few simple choices.

This is a STUNNING use of technology. PLEASE watch the video and PLEASE forward this entire newsletter to all your email friends so that you can help them.

Not only will your friends discover what to do if they see someone collapse, they'll get introduced to some helpful home improvement info!

GET MORE HOME IMPROVEMENT TIPS - FOR FREE!

The Christmas shopping season starts in earnest in just a few days.

Do you shop at Amazon.com? If so, you can get more helpful home improvement tips for FREE by helping me grow my business.

If you use one of my affiliate links to enter Amazon.com to shop, I get a tiny commission for each thing you buy. This does not cause the price of the item you buy to go up.

I would appreciate you doing this for me. Please help me grow AsktheBuilder.com for you!